A:Answer The power needs to be turned on first. Once the speaker IS on, the device that you have previously paired with it will automatically begin using the speaker (and the range on this little guy is excellent-our entire house). Since it can pair with two devices at a time, you may find that both devices, if used at the same time, will attempt to use the speaker. We usually shutdown Bluetooth on the iPhone or iPad that we don't want using it at that time. Hope this helps!